Chineepoo!

Chinese food in Korea usually comes down to a menu of only a handful of things, with a whole subsidiary section of the menu devoted to expensive, esoteric food. The low-end standards are usually: (1) some form of jjajang-myeon (noodles in black-bean sauce), (2) some form of jjambbong (salty, spicy seafood-and-noodle soup), (3) some form of bokgeumbap (fried rice), and (4) fried mandu (thick-skinned dumplings or potstickers). The mandu, despite their thick, capacious skins, are usually filled with cellophane noodles, scallions, and maybe, grudgingly, a little ground pork. The somewhat higher-end standards are (1) some form of tangsuyuk (sweet-sour pork), (2) gganpoonggi (fried chicken tenders in sweet-spicy sauce), and maybe (3) ggansho-saeyu (the shrimp version of gganpoonggi). Even more expensive are lesser-known, less frequently tried, and more esoteric dishes like (1) palbochae (lit. "eight treasures vegetables"—veggie combo, often with some small amount of protein, usually slathered in a lighter, clearer sauce than is found on the cheaper dishes; and (2) nanjawans (pork meatballs or medallions, usually but not always in a veggie-filled sauce).

A new Chinese place opened up in my building's basement a month or two ago, and it's become fairly popular in the way of most Chinese-food restaurants. I tried visiting yesterday (Thursday) after waking up too late in the evening, but at 8:30 p.m., the resto was closed to new customers. I went back today (Friday), a bit earlier this time, after I'd gotten my haircut. The lady who had turned me away recognized me today and was all smiles; I let myself in and found a table. As with many restos these days, ordering was via touch screen:

On the touch menu, you see jjajangmyeon, jjambbong, and bokgeumbap.

The place was obviously not shy about its prices. When I'm testing out a new place, I normally get a plate of mandu and something fried and sauced. You can tell a lot about a place by what they serve you, which is why An Shi Seong in Daegu caught me by surprise: compared to most Korean-style Chinese places, An Shi Seong isn't fucking around.

So I got fried mandu and a W35,000 plate of gganpoonggi. Neither is healthy for someone like me, but I'm about to embark on a longish walk, so I hope to burn off the calories. The point is that I had low expectations for dinner, so the mandu I got was, surprisingly, slightly better than expected:

Eight mandu for W9,000. A bit expensive. But good.

The gganpoonggi was about what I expected, but definitely a letdown compared to An Shi Seong. Most Seoul Chinese restos are disappointing in that way, and I've had Chinese all over Seoul. If you're based in Seoul and know of an awesome Korean Chinese resto (i.e., not Din Tai Fung, which is a global chain and not Korean), let me know in the comments.

slightly crunchy, mostly soggy... all in all, meh

Overall, everything was... not bad. Nothing wowed me, but the place was good enough that I might go back in a month. I'll try other dishes next time. I won't be trying the gganpoonggi again. Too much sadness, pain, and disappointment, like when you briefly meet an angel but find yourself dating an overly made-up slut.